Now the fun begins!!

OK, so we all grew up with an NI number and getting one if you are a new arrival in the UK seems from what I can tell, to be a doddle, or am I mistaken? Well I wanted to buy a car but before I can buy one I have to have an NIE number (a bit like an NI number but exclusive to NON Spanish people) so off I toddle with Val to the Gestoria to arrange for them to do this for us but they can´t. So they did the paperwork for us and we went to the Police station with several dozens of Rumanians, South Americans and a variety for ethnic groups we could not identify and that´s not including the Brits and Germans there too. We queue for a couple of hours and are then told we need a ticket with a number (yes, like in the supermarket) and we have to come back the next day!! We do that at 8am and are given a ticket, we queue for another 2 hours and are told by the clerk in the station that we need a "residencia" NOT jist an NIE number and we have to go away to come back when we have done all that.

So we went back to the gestor (this a person that the Spanish and any sane person uses to help them through the maze of form filling and for paying bills ) and she went into a Spanish rant and said that the Police were being stupid and that she would come back with us to the police. So back we go only to find that the law had been changed almost overnight by the Transport Dept. and that we did indeed need to be registered as residents BEFORE we could buy the car!!!

So it´s back to the gestor and the police later this week with all the papers plus evidence from our "landlord" that we have paid him and that we can use his address and that we have a copy of his passport!!

So as we negotiate piles of dog crap, holes in the road and stray tourists we press on with our car puchase....... More later!!!